Tigers' against-the-odds premiership story gives inconsistent Bombers hope

After having gone without a premiership since 1980, and losing three consecutive elimination finals from 2013-15, the Tigers had a stinker of a season in 2016, winning just eight games, finishing 13th and in their final outing copping a 113-point hiding against Sydney.

A summer of discontent saw coach Damien Hardwick nearly lose his job and a challenge to the club's entire board narrowly averted.

What price then Richmond rebounding to the extent it would not only win the following season's flag, but three of the next four premierships in one of the greatest eras AFL football has seen?

It was incredible stuff. And it's a recent memory one of Richmond's fiercest rivals, Essendon, could do worse than channel to its increasingly frustrated and long-suffering fan base.

The Bombers are now flag-less since 2000 and without even a win in any sort of final since 2004.

That's a near 20-year drought now stretching well past 7000 days, that tally in itself having become one of football's most popular cultural memes.

Essendon may not have reached a point of near-insolvency, as Richmond did at the lowest moment of (1990) of its 35-years-plus-spell in the football wilderness.

But Bomber fans are becoming similarly familiar with the "Groundhog Day"-like feels which accompany their club's attempt to return to the glory days.

There was another moment of déjà vu last Friday night, when after having matched Port Adelaide for a quarter, Essendon essentially turned up its toes, kicking just three more goals to the Power's 13 and being belted by 69 points.

This one stung Bomber fans even harder than usual after their side had won two of its first three games, and in both victories against Hawthorn and St Kilda displayed some real grit in edging over the line.

Even in defeat against the highly-rated Sydney, the Dons were in it until late in the final term.

This result, however, was far too reminiscent of the insipidness which marked the end to Essendon's 2023 season, when it was infamously smashed by 126 and 70 points in the final two games against Greater Western Sydney and Collingwood.

It's as though the psychological energy expended by the Bombers simply finding the wherewithal to get a win in close-fought contests with the Hawks and Saints all came home to roost against Port Adelaide, a team which finished the regular season top four last year, and was playing in front of its rabid fan base.

Over the course of a long season, those lapses of concentration and mental fatigue are understandable after a sustained period. But after just a month?

That's a concern. And continued lack of success simply makes the damaging impact of such defeats harder again to shrug off.

When a club which has known at least some recent success has a bad moment or even a bad spell, the memories of better times are fresh enough and, more importantly, have been experienced by enough of the playing group, to be able to call upon as a "how to" guide.

But Essendon, like other long-term "wilderness" cases before it, has precious little human resources upon which it can call to pass on what sustained success looks and feels like.

There are various statistics which back that up, but I think one of the most telling is that while there's six AFL clubs with an older average list age than Essendon, only three - Gold Coast, Adelaide and North Melbourne - collectively have less finals experience than do the Bombers.

In other words, Essendon has more than its share of players who have been around for long enough without tasting nearly the same levels even of finals experience, let alone winning finals, than do the vast bulk of their rivals.

Even Richmond, after its miserable 2016, was at least able to recall having for three years previously played well enough consistently enough to have appeared in three consecutive finals campaigns.

Essendon, in contrast, hasn't appeared in consecutive finals series since that last finals victory in 2004, which was its seventh straight September.

It has won more than 12 games for the year just once in the past 20 completed seasons, and even that was only 14 wins.

And that now 24-year premiership drought is already by five years the proud club's longest stint without a flag.

That said, the prospect of a Richmond premiership 12 months down the track that final afternoon of the Tigers' season in 2016 when they trudged off the SCG having been smashed by 113 points, probably seemed every bit as fanciful as an Essendon premiership does now.

That's the sort of hope the Bombers need.

Because there's not much else to keep them optimistic when defeats as abject as last Friday night's continue to happen.